Here is a recent one for your reading pleasure. Over the past couple weeks I have been sourcing for a territory sales position and had the following email exchange with an applicant. Apparently he felt unencumbered by the specific instructions provided in the online employment ad. Simple instructions – all applicants were asked to either email their resume or to call.

From the applicant:

is new business coming from advertising agencies also clients who use your services in the new york city marketplace important to you?

(Unsigned, no number provided.)

My response:

I apologize, I am unclear as to your inquiry. If you are interested in learning more about the position, call me at 123-456-7890 or if you are interested in applying for it, please email your resume to me.

Thanks,

Lee

Applicant’s reply:

Hi Lee, Please read my message again regarding new business and call me to discuss

Regards Applicant 123-456-7890 office nyc

(He erased all of the previous email exchanges in his reply which required me to open his previous email to be able to read his message.)

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As an employer, how much prep time do you put in before interviewing a candidate? Candidates have thousands of resources available to them through articles, books, coaches and websites (as we have pointed out in numerous posts).

Monster.com offers multiple resources to the job searcher, from industry specific advice for job searches/career pathing to basic tips on resume writing to answer strategies for interview questions . In monster’s Self-Assessment Center they have a Random Interview Question Generator that not only generates questions but provides specific advice on how to respond to the questions. The site also provides advice on how to handle illegal questions like, “Do you have children, and if so, how will you handle daycare?”

Needless to say I was intrigued so I decided to try it. Wow. It is a powerful tool to prep a candidate but it also contained some amusing questions. My favorite one – “Why is there fuzz on a tennis ball?” Now maybe this question is important for someone interviewing with Penn or Prince, but I don’t know why anyone would ask a question like that in a typical interview.

My point is simple – if the candidates are taking the time to thoroughly prepare for an interview, so should you. Think about the key success indicators for the position, why the position exists and then structure the majority of your questions around these areas. Please, please, do not attempt to “wing it” through an interview or you won’t see the real candidate sitting across from you.

And no, I do not know the answer to the fuzz on a tennis ball question.

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Kudos to CareerBuilder.com for launching the website Operationheroforhire.com. You can read the press release here. Essentially, they are attempting to connect soldiers returning home to employment opportunities. We plan on supporting this initiative and hope that you will too.

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We assess sales candidates on over 60 different Aptitudes in our assessment stage which provides some fine detail about their natural talents. We adjust our focus on these aptitudes based on what the position requires. However, there are a certain group of aptitudes that are consistently critical in any sales position.

Hence, I give you our top 10 list (we love lists):

1. Handling Rejection
2. Results Orientation
3. Influencing Others
4. Goal Achievement
5. Personal Accountability
6. Persistence
7. Objective Listening
8. Empathetic Outlook
9. Initiative
10. Emotional Control

If you visit our web page, you will see the definition for each aptitude along with the reasoning behind its inclusion in our list. I realize there are many other factors that go in to successful selling, but this is a list that can be applied to any sales position. Now imagine an objective, validated measurement on a scale of 0 to 10 with a .1 resolution (0.0 to 10.0) and you have our sales aptitudes assessment.

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